Bob Grover's Conservation Issues

Ocean Noise

On the Chapter's January nature walk to Montauk Point and the South
Fork, which I had the pleasure of co-leading with John Gluth, we saw
some terrific birds. The focus of this trip is always on wintering
seabirds, including various sea ducks and gulls, gannets and the much
sought-after alcids. They did not disappoint. As we progressed our way
through the trip, it occurred to me that the theme of this trip, and the
December Montauk trip, as well, is really the ocean. In true Audubon
naturalist fashion, our participants took equal pleasure in sightings of
marine mammals. These, also, did not disappoint. In fact, collectively,
the trip saw representatives of three major groupings, out of four that
frequent our waters, on this really fun trip.

First up, we saw several true seals, although fewer than average.
Generally, we see Gray Seals and Harbor Seals, but this year the grays
were a no-show. Secondly, several of our group saw spouts of baleen
whales. Northern Right Whales and Fin Whales are probably the most
common locally in winter, but I would welcome input from readers more
knowledgeable than I. We don't get to see whales every year, but these
sightings do seem to be increasing on this trip. More about whales
later.

In what I believe to be a land-based GSBAS nature walk first, we saw
representatives of a third marine mammal group, as well, the ocean
dolphins. This is a diverse group with over thirty species worldwide,
including Killer Whales, formerly considered to be in the porpoise
family. I have never seen dolphins in area waters in January, so this
was quite unexpected. We saw dolphin pods in both Block Island Sound and
Fort Pond Bay. The consensus among the group was that these were either
Short-beaked Common Dolphins or Atlantic White-sided Dolphins. Dolphins
and whales, as we all know, make extensive use of echolocation, or
sonar, for communication, locating prey, and other activities. As our
world is largely sight-dominated, theirs is sound-dominated.

Over the years, I have seen many whale researchers postulate that
human generated noise in the oceans could be disruptive to marine
mammals. Several years ago, marine mammal beach strandings were
correlated with experiments being conducted by the Navy for
anti-submarine warfare. These involved intense pulses of sonar blasts.
The Navy subsequently modified their technology in an attempt to
mitigate this impact. More recently, researchers have studied the
impacts of commercial ship traffic, including cargo ships, oil tankers,
and cruise ships. The engine and propeller noise these large vessels
generate is considerable. Researchers at the Boston Aquarium have
implemented very clever research techniques to study the effect of ship
traffic on Northern Right Whales, the entire population of which is a
precarious 475 individuals. They collected whale droppings, which float
on the surface when fresh, and measured the levels of stress hormones.
They then correlated this data with the amount of ship traffic. Their
method of collection was a particularly innovative example of low-tech
brilliance. They trained a dog to sniff out whale droppings on the water
surface and lead the boat's driver in the direction. No, I am not
joking! After analyzing all of the data, they determined that the whales
were, indeed, highly stressed by the presence of ship traffic. This is
likely to have impacts on reproductive success and may contribute to the
dangerously low population of these whales.

Why were they there?

So why were dolphins present in local waters in January? The water
temperature that day was 10C, three degrees above the historical average
for the day. Is that enough of a variance to make a difference? Three
degrees in the ocean is actually quite a lot, considering that 10C is an
average water temperature for Montauk for early May. I suspect that this
unusually warm winter allowed various schools of fish to remain in
shallow local waters, where they were being exploited by the dolphins. I
welcome input from our readers on this question.

Journal Faux Pas Response

In our previous column, we published a criticism of a photo caption
from the Journal of Coastal Research. Post-publication, I sent the
column to the journal editor, Dr. Charles Finkl. Here is his reply: " I
unfortunately did not write the caption to the cover photo. I don't know
much about penguins, but I must agree that they probably do not need
icebreakers to clear the ice pack. The photo was from a friend of mine,
a non-scientist and I perhaps should have caught the anthropomorphism in
the caption. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. For the other point in my
paper, it was just an idea and suggesting a theoretical possibility. It
was a fun project, but in reality it probably will never be done. But
then, as we get more desperate for resources all kinds of things will
change, including rules and regulations." Apology accepted.